i love thailand part one: chiang mai

there is nothing much more fascinating than arriving at the airport the night winter vacation begins. guaranteed to see fewer than 150 people that you work with or teach. we arrived in bangkok early morning just to board another plane up to chiang mai. we decided to leave bangkok for the end because of all of the fabulous shopping opportunities.
chiang mai was incredible. because of it's location on trade routes, they figured out tourism early on. It's one of the easiest places I've ever travelled, it was a great introduction to thai culture. chiang mai has "walking streets" on saturday and sunday nights in addition to a night bazaar every other night. the shopping possibilities are endless, as are the culinary options. we met up with gene and kendra one night and ate bugs. all sorts of em. we chased them down by sangsom, thai whiskey, which on that ocassion, and a few other throughout the trip, knocked me off my booty. it was so dangerous that eventually we had to declare "no sangsom nights." chiang mai was the adventure sport part of our vacation. we did a one day trek with elephants, rafting and "trekking." the following day we did the "flight of the gibbons," ziplining through the jungle. no gibbons sitings, unfortunately. you might have seen it on Amazing Race....super cool:) 11 lines, 2 bridges. it was def. one of the highlights.
post bug night we had a late start. ended up renting a motor bike and heading up the mountain to check out some wats, palaces a beautiful sites. we ended up visiting a coffee plantation in a hmoung village. it was actually about 3km from there when the tire went flat on our motorbike. and.......since it wasn't a vespa, we were in a pickle. long story short the first car to pass us was a pickup with just enough room in the back for our scooter and us. we were so grateful for the 36km trip back to chiang mai. killer story.
the next day we explored some more, and then jetted off to koh samui to start the beach part of the vacation.
check out pics...http://picasaweb.google.com/rebeccagalvan/Thailand200802?feat=directlink